urban bicycle journeys

The car drive was just over an hour the sixty miles mostly on I-10 from our condo in New Orleans up to St. Gabriel LA. The last ten miles were in heavy traffic on a two lane road heading through tanker truck yards and industrial back-door facilities that access the chemical plants and refineries lining the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Surprisingly, on arriving at the river, tiny St. Gabriel LA (population 6,600) was peaceful; picturesque even.

The parking lot of their modernist public library offered an easy place to leave the car for six hours.

My fat-tired drop-bar Kona gravel bike had been stuffed in the back of our Ford Escape Hybrid. Those balloon-like 29 x 2.2 knobby tires are crucial for the crazily broken streets of New Orleans but are mostly overkill elsewhere. I did find them useful in navigating the first half of this ride along the scenic but gravel strewn bumpy path that tops much the Mississippi River levee. The last portion nearest to Baton Rouge is paved. My ride each way from St. Gabriel up to the LSU campus is shown below.

River Road here had surprisingly little traffic and I set out first on the paved highway before switching to the gravel path on the parallel levee. For those not from around here, the giant levee blocks any view of the river from the road.

Near St. Gabriel I mentally saved two places for future trips. Roberto’s River Road Restaurant seems moderately fancy, rural and local. I passed it too early that day for lunch and was returning too late in the day.

The other missed opportunity was the AE LeBlanc Old Growth Cypress Tract; shown on Google Maps as a private nature reserve a quarter mile off River Road near St. Gabriel. I would love looking at huge ancient trees. I cycled up to someone’s unmarked driveway heading into the woods. The situation told me to stop; I should have set something up in advance.

I got up to cycle on the levee. The river is on the left, River Road on the right. For much of the first section, the batture was overgrown and you couldn’t see much of the river.

I cycled along the river on a bumpy path for miles and miles, crossing repeated cattle guards. For being twenty miles from Baton Rouge it felt surprisingly quiet and rural. Finally, suburbia started poking it head out.

It still seemed peaceful and empty when a high rise building arose up in the distance. It seemed to come right up from the riverbank in this rural area. It was, of course, a casino! Louisiana has laws that encourage casinos be on the Mississippi River, a legacy of them once being required to be only on floating vessels. I cycled on through the levee topping parking lot of this monstrosity.

I kept going towards Baton Rouge. It was a big relief for the levee path to now be paved.

I realized I had cycled more than twenty miles and I needed to turn around but I wanted to tell myself I had gotten as far as Baton Rouge. I settled for the south side of town, cycling within sight of LSU’s Tiger Stadium; seen below on the right.

On the way back I met several interesting cyclists, including this bird watcher who loaned me his quality binoculars to see a bald eagle nest alongside the Mississippi; two parents looking down on an almost full grown baby, upper left.

Thirteen miles on the levee path back towards St. Gabriel the pavement ends at the casino. Beyond that it is all bumpy gravel. I had already eaten my peanut butter and orange marmalade sandwich (on bread from Bellegarde bakery on Orange Street in New Orleans!) but was still hungry and the casino was my only option. I locked the bike outside and walked in.

I hate gambling and its complexities but my wife Tootie loves it, especially in small doses and if it does not involve serious money. She is especially good at processing the minutia, strategy and camaraderie of the dice game craps. Craps is not exactly win / lose. If someone is hot the whole table wins. Tootie rarely plays craps at the only casino in New Orleans because its twenty-five dollar minimum requires bringing nearly a thousand dollars to any given session. Here at two-thirty on a Thursday afternoon at L’auberge outside Baton Route the gaming floor looked empty, except for a crowd of young men surrounding a TEN dollar minimum craps table. I texted Tootie.

I needed a sandwich. Everything in America is too large. At the casino’s PJ’s Coffee they had cold premade stuff in plastic boxes. The $9.50 sausage and egg biscuit was not too bad when warmed up in their oven. I tossed out excess bread.

Because it’s on a paved scenic bike path directly from central Baton Rouge it would be nice to think at least a few gamblers come here by bicycle. Somehow I doubt it. I got back on my bicycle, cycling first on the levee and then on River Road. The levee and the river were now on my right.

The sun was starting to get oppressive even though the temperature was only in the upper seventies. I was really tired at 3:30 PM when I wheeled into the St. Gabriel library parking lot and heaved the Kona into our Ford. Driving back to New Orleans I stopped at a highway Starbucks in La Place; oat milk latte, one pack sugar. The biggest stress of what had been a lovely day was the seemingly endless slow traffic on the Interstate as it crept into central New Orleans and the Lower Garden District.